The Anniversary Party

The film itself has little movement; it is rather a train of vignettes, or sketches, about the one day in the life of Hollywood celebrities, and the characters are often unmemorable. But what is most lamentable is that the film seems to wallow in showing wild behaviors of Hollywood celebrities -- like drug use or nudity in the swimming pool -- but we know these thing well, probably as well as Cumming or Leigh. It is the time of the Internet and media, and the tabloids are always there to supply the gossips about Hollywood. And this crazy practice has been kept since the time of silent films, so why should we see another example here unless it is connected with deeper meaning about life in general, which we can relate to?

However, the film offers another way of enjoying it, and that's this. For example, Leigh plays Sally, an actress whose career is, she knows, going downward, and she just experienced a short period of separation with her hubby Joe (Cumming). Now Joe is going to direct a movie, but he doesn't choose his wife as the lead; instead, he cast a newcomer Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow), good-natured but slightly irritating, unconscious of the pain Sally is suffering. This rejection, probably based on her age, naturally makes Sally unhappy. ---- Now, Leigh herself was in a popular teen comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" which includes upcoming talent like Sean Penn and then young unknown Nicholas Cage, and compared with these males, to whom the offers of job steadily are likely to come after getting middle-aged, it is certain that female players are likely to be in disadvantageous position after graduating 'young and fresh' school. I can understand Sally's (or perhaps Leigh's) discontent feelings, which, I believe, are the true voices of the actresses like Jennifer Jason Leigh herself.

And another joy comes from unexpected place, from a co-starring actress with Leigh in "Fast Times" ---- Phoebe Cates. She plays virtually herself, an ex-actress who married Kevin Kilne's character (and real Phoebe Cates is married to Kevin for a long time, you know), and the two kids are the real children between them. So, you can see a glimpse of their life here, and may be surprised to find that Ms Cates, long retired from screen, are no longer what she was. That's a good thing here; she is happy as a wife and mother, and the kids are lovely, and she, intentionally or not, shows an alternative way of life for actress. (Check out one of her lines, which is very suggestive of her true feelings about the job.) Well, anyway, good to see her again, and in a happy mood, too.

I don't keep on writing these things about "fact or fiction" trivia, but you may sense what I mean. The film is, again I tell you, a weak, overlong one with too self-indulgent tones. The characters are often unlikable (especailly Jane Adams's one), and if not so, very unimpressive. You see J. C. Reilly and Parker Posey, but you don't remember them. You get Jennifer Beals, who is fine as ever as a cool and intelligent photographer (like herself), but too short time is allotted to her. Though the film's photography is beautiful, the fact cannot be hidden that it is shot with a digital camera. At the time of writing, the film has never been released in UK, which is not a surprising thing to us.

Still, "Anniversary Party" has its moments, and they are when the actors, usually very competent ones, do not act. It is a great irony, but the kids of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates shine most in the film. And they are really cute, but at the same time it is true that they are acting least.